CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Suit Filed Over Mass Arrests

The American Civil Liberties Union says it filed suit over the mass arrests of 430 police brutality protesters to vindicate the innocent and preserve 1st Amendment rights. Defendants in the suit include the city, Mayor Frank Jordan, former Police Chief Richard Hongisto and several police commanders. The San Francisco demonstrators took part in a march a week after riots erupted in the wake of the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case. The demonstrators were peaceful and were complying with police orders, but were surrounded and arrested without warning, then held for up to 10 hours in an "unprecedented assault on the Bill of Rights," said ACLU attorney Alan Schlosser.